The 915 Five features El Paso’s musicians and artists answering the same five questions. Each installment offers a stripped-down look at the people shaping the 915’s cultural landscape, in their own words. Up this week is Funeral Joke, a quartet weaving goth, doom, metal and more into a sound that’s as haunting as it is explosive. Formed from El Paso’s underground pulse, they channel raw emotion and atmosphere into every set, making their live shows something you feel as much as you hear.

Band/Artist Name: Funeral Joke

Line-up: Nora Marcela Aguirre (Vocals); Michael Mauvais (Guitars); Adrian Palacios (Bass, Guitar); Matthew Montana (Drums)

Formed: The group formed around the winter of 2023. We originally started off as a weird neofolk acoustic duo, totally inspired by bands like Swans, PJ Harvey, Sinéad O’Connor and Death in June. Put a couple of songs together and did a couple of open mic nights, which went over really well, and soon after we decided to make it into a full band. Had a couple of people join us in the beginning and did a few shows for a while until we brought in Matthew on drums and soon after Adrian came in on bass and that’s where we’re at. We got together to record our first single, “The Veil,” with Gabriel Gonzalez at Wavelength Audio in San Elizario and is currently out now on all streaming sites. Right now we’re putting down the final touches on our first full EP, which should be out in late May. This time we’re doing it all ourselves so we’ll see how it’ll come out.

Find Them:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/funeraljokeband
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/funeraljokeband 
• Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@funeraljokeband
• Bandcamp: https://funeraljoke.bandcamp.com/ 
• YouTube:https://youtube.com/@funeraljoke

We just dropped our self-titled single, “Funeral Joke,” so we [hope] everyone gets a chance to check it out. We’re really proud of it.

What high school did you go to?

Nora went to Franklin, Adrian went to Jefferson, Matthew went to Burgess and Michael went to Austin.

What’s your favorite local venue to play — and why?

Honestly we like a lot of places we play here. It just depends on the vibe of the show and also the crowd. We’re lucky, though, ’cause a lot of people we know at the shows are really good friends so we usually have good shows! Our current favorite places are Bye Bye Dear and Lovebuzz. Always has a good crowd and both places treat us really well.

If you had to describe your sound without using a genre label, what would you say?

It’s really hard to explain, mostly because we all have quite an array of different influences, ranging from the atmospheric to straight noise to traditional rock. We’ve been called experimental death rock and post metal with a very ’90s sound, which we’re fine with honestly. But it does paint us in a corner when it comes to playing with other groups, especially locals, ’cause we’re not a traditional El Paso band, nor are we a traditional goth, doom, sludge, postpunk or postmetal band. But the sounds we create range from these genres and artists: Neurosis, Cult of Luna, Emma Ruth Rundle, Swans, Live Skull, ’80s Soundgarden, Ms. P*ss and many others are undeniable and we love it.

What do you do when the song isn’t coming — push through, scrap it or something else?

Well in the beginning, it was Michael and Nora who wrote the music. But now that we have the rest of the guys, we’re gonna start collaborating with everyone’s ideas and see what we can come up with. We’ve attempted jams before. If there’s an idea that sparks up within but somehow can’t focus on it at the moment, we’ll pause and come back to it later to see if we can structure it better. Since we usually record all the jams we do, it makes things easier to piece together everyone’s ideas. I believe we have a good amount of material/ideas to make another album, but right now we’re concentrating on finishing the EP. Once that’s out, then we’ll begin working on the new material. Very excited for that.

If someone is seeing you live for the first time, what should they expect?

We, as a band, express ourselves in the most honest way we can in the music, and through that, we leave the audience to decide. If there’s a connection between themselves, us and the music, then that’s wonderful. It also helps that our singer engages with the audience during the performances, which we’ve been told that we’re an amazing live band to check out. Again, we’ll leave that up to whoever comes out to our shows to see us play.